[RT-AC66R] WiFi is slow - should I install new FW?

[W4RH34D]

Are your antennas placed correctly?

What it all boils down to is signal quality, interference, hardware and software.

We rule it all out to find what is going on.

Signal is good - then there may be a wireless device like an NFC or airprint printer, wireless speakers or some kind of general wireless device on the same channel as your main connection to the router.

If that is not the case you either have a software misconfiguration or a hardware misconfiguration (antenna) or failure (bad radio).

 

[doczenith1]

IIRC, Merlin benchmarked his Nexus 9 (2x2?) connected to his RT-AC68U at over 700Mbit real-world throughput. (I dunno any other real-world results off the top of my head...)

I'm lucky to hit 450 Mbps on speed tests with my 2x2 AC Moto X Pure Edition.

 

[hoopitz]

Are your antennas placed correctly?

What it all boils down to is signal quality, interference, hardware and software.

We rule it all out to find what is going on.

Signal is good - then there may be a wireless device like an NFC or airprint printer, wireless speakers or some kind of general wireless device on the same channel as your main connection to the router.

If that is not the case you either have a software misconfiguration or a hardware misconfiguration (antenna) or failure (bad radio).

I'm losing my mind - I have no idea what the problem is. I picked up an Asus USB-AC56 for a good deal and figured I would give it a try. When I do a speed test, I'm getting pretty much the exact same speeds as before ~80-90 Mbps. From what I can see, there is no interference that would be causing this. There must be some settings that I don't have correct. Here are a bunch of screenshots.

One thing to note is that in the Router Log, the TX Rate seems to be jumping all over the place when I refresh.

 

[doczenith1]

Here are my settings for comparison. They are pretty much the default values except for the channel and Universal Beamforming.



Looks like I forgot to smear out my password. I guess if you can find my house you can get free wifi on my 1 gig connection.

 

[hoopitz]

Here are my settings for comparison. They are pretty much the default values except for the channel and Universal Beamforming.

View attachment 7468 View attachment 7469

Looks like I forgot to smear out my password. I guess if you can find my house you can get free wifi on my 1 gig connection.

Thanks for the info ... and the free Wi-Fi

So I updated the drivers on the USB NIC and then all of a sudden I was getting speeds a little closer to 150. Then, after a little bit, the speeds went back down to around 80. I changed the channel from auto to 149 and then the speeds shot up to 240. That stayed for about 3 minutes or so, and now a speedtest shows 150 and slowly dropping every time I run an additional.

This. is. frustrating. :/

 

[Nullity]

Have you tried resetting the AP to the Factory Defaults? I know I've commited the "all defaults are obviously sub-optimal" sin and changed numerous WiFi settings when I had no real understanding of how it might impact performance.

Also, iperf is my preferred nethod of benchmarking throughput. You can run iperf directly on the AP (via entware) but since there is a bit of CPU overhead involved with running it, it's best to run it between other devices, like 2 devices connected to the AP (one wired & one wireless).

 

[L&LD]

Thanks for the info ... and the free Wi-Fi

So I updated the drivers on the USB NIC and then all of a sudden I was getting speeds a little closer to 150. Then, after a little bit, the speeds went back down to around 80. I changed the channel from auto to 149 and then the speeds shot up to 240. That stayed for about 3 minutes or so, and now a speedtest shows 150 and slowly dropping every time I run an additional.

This. is. frustrating. :/

Keep testing ('all') different channels (reboot both the router and the testing computers after each channel change).

You're not running anything like inssider when you're testing, are you? (Known throughput killer).

 

[W4RH34D]

Don't worry about going crazy. It's a crazy response to a crazy situation.

It looks like you're getting a crash course in wifi technology - you may need it down the road.

So you switched out components (the router) and your connection stayed the same. Unfortunately you switched it out with another variable and not a known quantity.
I think I misread a little bit - this is a usb wifi device? I've not had good experience with those I use them in a pinch though.
USB- have you checked your power profile to make sure it's giving the device enough juice?


Do you get a better 5ghz connection anywhere else like at the coffee shop?

 

[hoopitz]

Keep testing ('all') different channels (reboot both the router and the testing computers after each channel change).

You're not running anything like inssider when you're testing, are you? (Known throughput killer).

Tried this, and still nothing. I didn't have insidder running.

Don't worry about going crazy. It's a crazy response to a crazy situation.

It looks like you're getting a crash course in wifi technology - you may need it down the road.

So you switched out components (the router) and your connection stayed the same. Unfortunately you switched it out with another variable and not a known quantity.
I think I misread a little bit - this is a usb wifi device? I've not had good experience with those I use them in a pinch though.
USB- have you checked your power profile to make sure it's giving the device enough juice?

Do you get a better 5ghz connection anywhere else like at the coffee shop?

Crash course, indeed! Yes, it's a usb wifi device. Not sure how I check the power profile though... I made sure to go to the Power Management tab of the NIC and uncheck the box allowing Windows to turn off the device to save power.

*UPDATE* So after a few days, here's what I wound up doing... I re-enabled the Wi-Fi on the modem/router that Time Warner Cable installed (Ubee DVW32CB), and I removed my Asus from the mix. Right off the bat, my wireless speeds (using the USB-AC56 NIC) shot up to ~180. I'm going to methodically play around with the settings of the NIC as well as the Ubee modem/router to see if I can get those wireless speeds up a little. If anyone has any suggestions for the NIC settings, I would love to hear them - I've attached a screenshot of my options. I'm going to do some research on this, as well. One other thing I noticed is that when I run insidder, it shows the 'Max Rate' of my 5 GHz as 54 - not sure what that means.

I'm going to take the Asus AC66R and install it on the other side my house, where my wifi is a little less strong. When it comes to this, I want to set it to 'Wireless Repeater' mode, and not 'Access Point', correct? As far as I remember, for it to be an access point, it would have to be hardwired to the other router, which is not what I want. If I put the Asus in 'Wireless Repeater' mode, will it affect my networks' bandwidth? My plan was to only have it repeat the 2.4 GHz signal, so that shouldn't affect the 5 GHz bandwidth at all, correct?

 

[L&LD]

Let's start at the beginning. What firmware are you running? Have you tried/tested RMerlin's latest firmware (or one of the forks thereof) properly? Have you ever performed a full reset to factory defaults followed by a minimal and manual configuration to secure the router and connect to your ISP? Have you properly placed the router in the 3D middle of the areas you want covered with WiFi? How are the antennae positioned? Do you have hidden ssid's? Do you have the same ssid's for the same devices for more than two firmware? How are you testing for throughput and proper channel placement? Have you uninstalled your drivers for the USB-AC56, rebooted your computer, removed all old references (registry) and files/folders for those drivers and then rebooted once more and installed them again (at defaults)?

Using a router as a repeater will decrease (to half) the throughput of all devices on that band, and possibly others, for all clients. Not recommended. If the signal is bad where the repeater is placed, it will be effectively much less than half of the throughput possible without it. A repeater is properly placed in a strong signal area that is closer to the area you want to boost the signal in. Even then; still not recommended.

I would suggest to uninstall the drivers for the USB WiFi adaptor and re-install them to defaults.

Flash the latest RMerlin firmware for your router.

Do a full reset to factory defaults (properly, see below).

Use a new ssid.

Test throughput from a wired computer to a wireless computer for each channel (rebooting as necessary after each channel change) with a large file (1GB and bigger). Pick the channel that has the best balance of throughput and lowest latency at multiple WiFi locations throughout your home.


I would do the above suggestions before you start playing around with the NIC's settings and making things worse, not better (proof is that it works properly with the ISP's modem/router combo).

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/no...l-and-manual-configuration.27115/#post-205573

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac66u-slow-wan-to-lan.12973/page-3#post-269410

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/faq-nvram-and-factory-default-reset.22822/

 

[W4RH34D]

Power profile - in windows you go to control panel - power; make sure you're set to high performance for testing - when plugged in high performance should be what you use. On battery - power saver. You should probably test both to know what you'll get either way.